SETODA ECO LEMON
Every lemon in our lemon tea comes from Setoda, an island town in Japan's Seto Inland Sea and the birthplace of Japanese-grown lemons. They are cultivated to a standard safe enough to eat peel and all.
No.1
Hiroshima grows more lemons than any other prefecture — about half of Japan's harvest
-50%
Certified special cultivation with half the usual synthetic pesticides and fertilizers
2023
Setoda Eco Lemon won the grand prize of the Japan Agricultural Award
Setoda sits at the center of the Seto Inland Sea, on the islands of Ikuchijima and Konejima. A warm, dry climate and well-drained granite soil make it ideal citrus country. Hiroshima is Japan's top lemon-producing prefecture — about half the national harvest — and Setoda is its heart.
Float Lemon Tea floats a whole lemon slice, peel and all, in your cup. That is exactly why our standard for the lemon itself is stricter than anything.
01
Grown under Hiroshima's certified "special cultivation" standard, with synthetic pesticides and fertilizers cut to half of conventional levels.
02
Nothing is applied after harvest — no anti-mold treatment, no wax, none of the post-harvest chemicals common on imported lemons.
03
Only a lemon this safe can go into your cup as a whole slice. When you finish your tea, feel free to eat the slice, peel included.
04
The groves are fertilized with recycled shells from Hiroshima's famous oysters — an environmentally friendly, circular way of farming.
A STORY OF REVIVAL
Lemon growing in Setoda dates back to the Meiji era, and by 1963 the town led Japan with a harvest of some 900 tons. The next year, import liberalization devastated domestic lemons and the groves all but vanished. Later, concerns over post-harvest pesticides on imported lemons brought Japanese lemons back into the light. Setoda replanted across the whole island and reclaimed its place as Japan's No.1 — a story of persistence, condensed into every slice.
HEART LEMON
The square-looking lemons in the photo are "heart lemons" — fitted with molds while still on the tree so they slowly grow into a heart shape. Slice them and out come little hearts, another craft of Setoda's growers.
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